Throughout Monsieur Vénus (1884), Rachilde retains conventional gender roles for the purpose of subverting their gender specificity. Though the author succeeds in indicating facile stereotypes of femininity, she does little to garner acceptance for non-normative female behavior, particularly when this behavior does not attempt to incorporate traditional displays of masculinity.

In the nineteenth century, the practice of hypnotism is at the center of debates about criminal responsibility: are hypnotized individuals - and particularly hysterical women, the hypnotized subject par excellence - responsible for crimes committed under hypnosis? Yet, this question betrays a pervasive anxiety about women as untamable social threats.